Sharing our outdoor experiences and books along the way…

Top 10 Things We Hate About Summer

It’s hard to actually hate summer, isn’t it?

Especially when we spend 9 months of the year waiting for it! We should be completely content and appreciate every remaining sunny day, before the rain sets in, and that’s only a short time away.

We will have frosty mornings, long rainy days, and at the beginning of winter we will be getting off work at the end of the day… in the dark! YUCK!!

So why even write this post? I must be crazy!!

Good question…the idea came to me last week when I woke up in the middle of the night with the sound of a mosquito buzzing around my ear, driving me insane! I had to get up, turn on the light and track it down and kill it! After that, I was awake and my mind wandered to this post…

So here it is(in no order)…

Road Construction

If you enjoy local travel like we do, road construction can be such an enormous hassle! Even for just your daily commute road construction can be a nightmare in town. We have had more than our share in our neighborhood this summer. I get so tired of it!

Mosquitos

Like I mentioned above, a mosquito inspired this list, so yes, I hate them!

Fruit flies in my wine

I like a glass of red wine in the evening, and so do the fruit flies that invade my fruit bowl during the late summer months. Nothing is worse than finding a fruit fly swimming in my cabernet(with the exception of maybe not finding it in time).

Hot days above 90′

I love the sun, I really do! I enjoy the long endless days spent outside! But I don’t enjoy needing an extra shower from sweating and feeling as if my clothes are sticking to me. There is also the added issue of applying sunblock to everyone in the family(well except Ryan, he refuses).

Forest Fires

Forest fires seem to pop up all over the state this time of year, usually starting by thunderstorms. Last summer we had plans to camp at our favorite Central Oregon Campground for Labor Day. Once we got there we had to turn around because the smoke was thicker than fog and we could taste it in the air!!

Poor air quality

We live in the Willamette Valley and in the summer months air quality can be an issue, especially when the summer is so dry, like this year. Last summer we had some days where it wasn’t safe to be outdoors.

Tourists

In Oregon, if you want to camp in a state park campground or National Park like Crater Lake in the summer months, you have to book your reservations in January or it is going to be full. So you learn to be a planner! Even some parking lots with local hikes are so crowded with cars that you can’t even stop along the side of the road!

Traffic

Highway 101 runs the length of the Oregon Coast and many small towns are built along the highway, making it difficult to travel from one side to the other because of extra tourists. I always worry when we are driving along a stretch of highway with an ocean view that some guy who’s never seen the ocean before is going to take his eyes off the road and run us off the cliff!

Poor surfing, no waves

Sadly for a surfer, the Oregon Coast summer is synonymous with fog, wind and no waves. Spring and fall is where it’s at for good weather and great waves!

No school for summer break

I will first say, I love my children, they really are the best! That being said, I can’t wait for them to go back to school by the time it’s mid August. I am so tired of hearing… I’m bored, none of my friends can play. What should I do?

And that’s my list! It seemed silly as I wrote it, really what I hate is mosquitos, but it made for a fun list, I’m not sure I could think of another thing I hate about summer, except for it ending each September. I am sure I will have a top 10 list in a few months for the 10 reasons we can’t wait for summer!🤪

Mosquitoes, white socks, no see ums, tourist, heat over 80 in Alaska is way to hot, road construction which can only be done in summer here, traffic, forest fires but the good things out weigh the bad things by a ton

I quite like it actually (which I’m quite sure wasn’t the intention!) I feel all racey and daring! Unfortunately it was only part of a longer uglier diatribe but I’m taking what I like and leaving the rest!!

I have a love/hate relationship with summer! I LOVE being able to go to the beach because that is my happy place. But I hate the heat it comes with. The high 90’s temperature makes me feel absolutely horrible and logically I only get to go to the beach once a year and that isn’t even always possible! I am at the point of summer that I am SO READY for fall!!!